Thursday, November 18, 2010

Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan - great adventure & fun! (ages 9 - 12)

"Oh Mom, they have to make a movie of this book!" My two oldest children are engrossed in reading The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan, and kids are starting to talk about how good it is. Today I sat down with a group to talk about their thoughts. The Lost Hero is the first in a new series, The Heroes of Olympus, but it also continues the setting and some of the characters from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

The Lost Hero is getting rave reviews from kids who have eaten up Riordan's earlier series about Percy Jackson, son of Neptune, the Greek god of the sea, and a mortal mother. Now I must admit that kids have snatched the copy out from my hands so fast that I haven't had a chance to read it yet - so this review is straight from the kids.

The Lost Hero "was very adventurous. I liked the way it still retained that Percy Jackson feel with lightly more moving around." Like the previous books, Riordan has plenty of action, suspense and magical items. Kids report that his writing is very descriptive, especially creating the picture of Camp Half Blood with the cabins for the different gods. The Canadian wilderness was also memorable to these readers, with its icy wilderness and rigorous challenges.

"I like the way that he added the Roman gods to this story. I used to think that they were the same as the Greek gods, but realize now that they had their own personalities." My test group overall found this aspect interesting and not confusing. The librarian is me is cheering!

I asked my group if the length was a problem (576 pages long!), and this small group of students said that it was very fast-paced. "I'm reading it really fast," said one student. "It's a real cliff hanger, so I want to keep reading more and more." Others said that they wished it were longer!

The only complaints came from readers who wanted more of the Percy Jackson characters in the story. One reader had an interesting suggestion to make more time have elapsed between the characters, so you felt more distance from the previous characters you had really enjoyed.

For more reviews, check out these blogs: Pink Me, and The Bookette. Our review copy was kindly sent by the publisher. If you make a purchase using the Amazon links on this site, a small portion will go to Great Kid Books (at no cost to you!). Thank you for your support.